The New Power Party (NPP) is a political party in Taiwan formed in early 2015. The party emerged from the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014, and advocates for universal human rights, civil and political liberties, as well as Taiwan independence/nationalism.New Power Party Platform (Chinese) The party is a part of the political phenomenon known as the "Third Force" (), in which new political parties, unaligned with traditional Pan-Green or Pan-Blue Coalitions, sought to provide an alternative in Taiwanese politics. Nevertheless, the NPP's policies are very much aligned with and closely match the Pan-Green camp; thus the NPP cooperated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the 2016 elections, going as far as not to run in traditional KMT strongholds to avoid competition with the DPP. The party works in tandem with a perceived generational shift towards Taiwan-centrism as the new socio-cultural norm.
The party was started by Freddy Lim, lead vocalist of Taiwanese heavy metal band Chthonic, veteran activist Michael Lin, human rights lawyers , Chiu Hsien-chih, and other prominent figures of the Sunflower Student Movement. Lim headed the party-building process, which saw the inclusion of Hung Tzu-yung, sister of the late Hung Chung-chiu, environmental lawyer , and author-activist Neil Peng into the party. On 12 September 2015, the NPP was officially formed with the election of Huang Kuo-chang as executive leader, heading a leadership team of six deputy leaders.
The NPP won five legislative seats in the 2016 Taiwanese legislative election, three from constituency and two from party-list votes, beating out long-time third party People First Party. However, two of its legislators left the party in 2019. In the 2020 Taiwanese legislative election, NPP won three party-list seats.
Platform The NPP aims to rewrite the Constitution of the Republic of China, which operates under the assumption that the Republic governs all of China (including mainland China, which the ROC has not governed since 1949), to just refer to Taiwan.
The NPP supports the legalization of same-sex marriage and is generally in favor of abolition of capital punishment. The NPP also takes a more left-wing stance compared to the DPP on labor and welfare.
History The party was established on 25 January 2015. In the 2016 Taiwanese legislative election, the first contested by the party, the NPP won five seats in the Legislative Yuan, making it the third largest party in the Ninth Legislative Yuan. Three of the candidates gained constituency seats and two were elected through the party list. Freddy Lim and Hung Tzu-yung left the NPP in August 2019, though both remained independent members of the Ninth Legislative Yuan and chose to align with the DPP. That same month, NPP legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal was suspended from the party. Kawlo, a party-list legislator, was replaced by Jang Show-ling in September 2019.
In the 2020 Taiwanese legislative election, the New Power Party won three party list seats, which elected Chen Jiau-hua, Chiu Hsien-chih, and Claire Wang as legislators of the Tenth Legislative Yuan.
The party lost all its seats in the 2024 legislative election, failing to reach the 5 percent threshold for the party-list seats.
After the 2024 elections, NPP formed alliance with some minor parties in the Pan-Green coalition on topics in defending Taiwan Sovereignty and replacing the Taiwan People's Party and Kuomintang. They have also formed electoral pact via not directly competing against each other in the 2026 Taiwanese local election.
Leadership Order TermExecutive Leader Deputy Team Leader Leadership Team Assumed office Left office 1 1 Freddy Lim Freddy LimNeil PengHsu Yung-mingHuang Hsiu-chen (黃秀禎) 25 January 2015 2 July 2015 2 Huang Kuo-chang 2 July 2015 25 March 2016 2 Freddy LimKawlo Iyun Pacidal 25 March 2016 January 2019 3 3 Chiu Hsien-chih Chiu Hsien-chih Freddy LimHung Tzu-yungKawlo Iyun PacidalChen Hui-min
Lee Bo-yi (李柏毅) Lin Yi-ying
Tseng Wei-kai 1 March 2019Freddy Lim left the party on 1 August 2019. Chiu resigned as party chief on 12 August 2019.
Hung left the party on 13 August 2019.
Kawlo's party membership was revoked on 2 September 2019. 4 Hsu Yung-ming 21 August 2019 Sabrina Lim (林亮君) left the party on 11 November 2019. Hsu was suspended on 1 August 2020, with Chiu Hsien-chih taking over as acting party chief. 5 Chiu Hsien-chih 1 August 2020 (acting) Hsu resigned from the party on 5 August 2020. Chiu Hsien-chih later announced the whole committee has resigned for new election.
Tseng Wen-hsueh resigned from the party on 23 August 2020.6Kao Yu-tingClaire Wang Kao Yu-ting Chiu Hsien-chih Chen Jiau-hua
Lin Yi-ying
Tseng Wei-kai29 August 2020 Kao resigned as party chief and executive council on 17 November 2020. 7 Chen Jiau-hua 17 November 20204Chen Jiau-hua Claire Wang Chiu Hsien-chih
Chen Meng-hsiu 1 March 2021 28 February 2023 7 5 Claire Wang 1 March 2023
Secretary-General Chen Hui-min (25 January 2015 – 1 March 2019) Chen Meng-hsiu (1 March 2019 – 30 August 2019) Alt URL Wu Pei-yun (30 August 2019 – 1 March 2020) Chen Chih-ming (1 March 2020 – 29 August 2020) Kao Yu-ting (16 September 2020 – 17 November 2020) Bai Ching-feng (since 17 November 2020)
Legislative Yuan leader (caucus leader) Hsu Yung-ming (1 February 2016 – 10 September 2019) Huang Kuo-chang (10 September 2019 – 31 January 2020) Chiu Hsien-chih (since 1 February 2020 – 31 January 2024)
Election results Legislative elections Election Total seats won Total votes (party-list) Vote share (party-list) Change Election leader Status President2016744,3156.11% 5 seatsHuang Kuo-changTsai Ing-wen 20201,098,1007.75% 2 seatsHsu Yung-ming2024353,6702.57% 3 seatsClaire WangLai Ching-te
Name Constituency Term Freddy Lim 林昶佐 Taipei 5 2016–2019 Huang Kuo-chang 黃國昌 New Taipei 12 2016–2020 Hung Tzu-yung 洪慈庸 Taichung 3 2016–2019 Kawlo Iyun Pacidal 高潞·以用·巴魕剌 Proportional representation 2016–2019 Hsu Yung-ming 徐永明 Proportional representation 2016–2020 Jang Show-ling 鄭秀玲 Proportional representation 2019–2020 Chen Jiau-hua 陳椒華 Proportional representation 2020–2024 Chiu Hsien-chih 邱顯智 Proportional representation 2020–2024 Claire Wang 王婉諭 Proportional representation 2020–2024
Local elections Election Mayors &Magistrates Councils Third-levelMunicipal heads Third-levelMunicipal councils Fourth-levelVillage heads Election Leader 2018 Huang Kuo-chang 2022 Chen Jiau-hua
The New Power Party fielded 40 candidates for city and county councils across Taiwan in the local elections of November 2018. Sixteen NPP candidates for local office won.
The party nominated candidates for mayor and magisterial posts for the first time prior to the 2022 local elections.
See also Formosa Alliance List of political parties in Taiwan Pan-Purple Coalition Politics of Taiwan Taiwan independence Left
Notes
References
External links
New Power Party on Facebook Official website (In Traditional Chinese)